00                       SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 14                                                                    
01 Urging the United States Congress to amend the tax code to permanently repeal the                                       
02 federal estate and generation-skipping transfer tax.                                                                    
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04       WHEREAS, under tax relief legislation passed in 2001, the federal estate and                                    
05 generation-skipping transfer tax (the "estate tax") was temporarily repealed, not permanently                           
06 eliminated; and                                                                                                         
07       WHEREAS farmers and other small business owners will face losing their farms and                                
08 businesses if the federal government reimposes the heavy burden of the estate tax; and                                  
09       WHEREAS the estate tax is particularly damaging to families who are working their                               
10 way up the ladder and trying to accumulate wealth for the first time; and                                               
11       WHEREAS employees suffer layoffs when small- and medium-sized businesses are                                    
12 liquidated to pay estate taxes; and                                                                                     
13       WHEREAS, if the estate tax had been repealed in 1996, over the next nine years, the                             
14 United States economy would have realized billions of dollars each year in extra output, and                            
15 an average of 145,000 additional new jobs would have been created; and                                                  
16       WHEREAS having repeatedly passed in the United States House of Representatives                                  
01 and the United States Senate, repeal of the estate tax has proven to hold wide bipartisan                               
02 support;                                                                                                                
03       BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the members of the Alaska                                   
04 delegation to the Congress of the United States are requested to support, work to pass, and                             
05 vote for the immediate and permanent repeal of the estate tax.                                                          
06       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the                                    
07 Honorable Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S.                                              
08 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.